Butler Bulldogs mascot Blue II sits on the floor during player introductions before a game against the Purdue Boilermakers at Conseco Fieldhouse. / Brian Spurlock, USA TODAY Sports

by Nicole Auerbach, USA TODAY Sports

by Nicole Auerbach, USA TODAY Sports

INDIANAPOLIS â?? Basketball coach Brad Stevens loves to tell the story about the time he learned exactly how unimportant he was to Butler University.

It was summer, and Stevens and his wife were serving pizzas at a camp in Hinkle Fieldhouse. A girl and her mother walked in as part of an informal campus tour.

"She does a double take, and she goes, 'Do I know you?' and I say, 'I don't know,' " Stevens says. "She says, 'Well, have I met you before?' I say, 'Well, I don't know. If you've been here, probably, serving pizzas at camps.

"She goes, 'Anyway, where do they keep that dog?' ... She came to see the dog. That sums up all of our places at Butler."

Yes, Butler Blue II (better known as "Blue" or "Blue II") is a celebrity. A main attraction. There's no way else to describe the cult-like following Butler's mascot has. Blue II has more than 11,000 followers on Twitter as well as his own blog and a special wardrobe.

"We do black tie galas so much so that Blue has his own custom tuxedo," says Michael Kaltenmark, Butler's director of web marketing and the proud owner of Blue.

Kaltenmark also owns and trains one-year-old Butler Blue III, who goes by "Trip." Kaltenmark got Blue in 2004 after another Butler employee, who owned Blue I, left for a job in Washington. Kaltenmark volunteered to raise Blue II, putting his journalism/public relations degree to good use as he brainstormed creative ways to promote the puppy.

"I wanted Butler Blue to become a household name like (Georgia bulldog) Uga or (Yale's) Handsome Dan," says Kaltenmark, who is also a Butler grad. "I kind of thought to myself, it might take a long time to get there but I'll give it a try. Part of that was taking him to campus every day, making him more visible. Games, things like that.

"Then, I kind of got an idea to start blogging from him, then Twitter came about so I started tweeting for him. People seemed to like it so I said I'll just keep doing it and see where it goes."

Blue II's surge in popularity coincided with Butler's Cinderella-esque Final Four runs in 2010 and 2011. Even former president George H. W. Bush wanted to meet Blue in Houston.

"People saw him on TV and were like, 'Butler has a bulldog!' " Kaltenmark says. "Then they found out more about him and found out he had a Twitter and a blog. It just kind of took off from there. Went to another Final Four, and it really just builds and builds.

"Blue II isn't even done yet, and we're where I thought we could be by Blue VI in terms of recognition and publicity."

Says Stevens: "Ever since the Final Four, it's really been unbelievable his following. â?¦ It's been great. It's a big part of Butler."

It's a big time commitment â?? essentially an extra full-time job â?? for Kaltenmark and his wife, a physical therapist, who both love dogs but hadn't owned English bulldogs before. Kaltenmark says it's a good thing his wife is understanding because Blue II's social calendar tends to fill up. The couple also has a two-year-old son.

They added Trip to their family in February 2012. He turned one year old on Dec. 23.

"He's kind of a spaz," Kaltenmark says. "People, even myself, tend to forget that Blue II was this way when I first got him. They're so used to seeing Blue II now. He's stately. He's got it down. He's distinguished and knows what he's doing. He's a veteran. He's really good in almost all settings. Then you bring Trip in, and he's kind of all over the place."

But Trip is full of promise, Kaltenmark points out, and there are plans in the works for a "changing of the collar ceremony" at the end of this basketball season. Blue II will step down, and Trip will take over most of the mascot duties, like the good-luck rub from the Butler players as a part of pre-game introductions.

Until then, Kaltenmark will work hard to build both dogs' brands on a daily basis. Every day, he tweets photos of Blue and Trip from their Twitter handles. The dogs also "check in" to venues on Foursquare, promote interviews they're doing and interact with other celebrities. They even have their own Ustream channel.

Over the next couple of weeks, they'll use their social media savvy to document a big road trip. The dogs are embarking on the Big Dawgs Tour, a road trip in their Blue Mobile from Indianapolis to various Atlantic 10 cities to celebrate the Bulldogs' first season in the league.

They'll go to Philadelphia, Washington and New York. They'll tweet, blog and take photos from games and excursions they have planned.

"As new members of the A-10, we're playing markets we've played in before but not as A-10 members," Kaltenmark says. "It's one thing to send your athletic director and president on the road to those games â?? I think that's great, but I'm not sure that's newsworthy.